It’s that time again…another Visual Studio Live! I will be presenting 2 sessions at Visual Studio Live! in Las Vegas this March 16-20. The conference is a full 5 day event and there’s still time to register. For this event, I’ll be presenting:

There are a variety of platforms and frameworks which can be used to build games on both Windows and Windows Phone depending on the complexity of the game and the developer's skill level. In this session, we will delve into the many options available to developers, including DirectX, Unity, MonoGame, and more!

Universal Apps enable developers to build apps for Windows Store and Windows Phone simultaneously while sharing code, controls, and other assets between them. In this session, you will learn how Universal Apps work as we build a simple app from start to finish using this new project type. We will cover what can and can't be shared, and how to best structure your project for maximum re-use.

I will be presenting 3 sessions at Visual Studio Live! in Orlando this November 17-21. The conference is a full 5 day event, and part of the Live! 360 conference, covering SharePoint, SQL Server, Modern Apps and more. Plus, there’s still time to register and save $600 if you register before 10/15/14! For this event, I’ll be presenting:

There are a variety of platforms and frameworks which can be used to build games on both Windows and Windows Phone depending on the complexity of the game and the developer's skill level. In this session, we will delve into the many options available to developers, including DirectX, Unity, MonoGame, and more!

A variety of new features were added to the .NET 4.5 Framework, including support for easily writing asynchronous code. This session will introduce the concepts of asynchronous programming, .NET Tasks, how to ensure your UI remains responsive, and how to do all of this properly in your own applications using the new "async"and "await" keywords. If you're looking for ways to provide a better, smoother experience for your users, don't miss this session!

Universal Apps enable developers to build apps for Windows Store and Windows Phone simultaneously while sharing code, controls, and other assets between them. In this session, you will learn how Universal Apps work as we build a simple app from start to finish using this new project type. We will cover what can and can't be shared, and how to best structure your project for maximum re-use.

I will be presenting 2 sessions at Visual Studio Live! in Washington DC this October 6-9. The conference is a full 4 day event and there’s still time to register and save $400 if you register before 9/10/14! For this event, I’ll be presenting:

Expand your mobile horizons with Windows Phone! Developing applications for the phone is quite similar to building XAML applications for other platforms. In this session, Brian will demonstrate the fundamentals of Windows Phone development while building a very simple application which covers all of the important points of the new platform's architecture, including the developer tools, device emulator and touch input. We will also discuss what's new with the Windows Phone 8.1 update and how you can use it to build better apps.

There are a variety of platforms and frameworks which can be used to build games on both Windows and Windows Phone depending on the complexity of the game and the developer's skill level. In this session, we will delve into the many options available to developers, including DirectX, Unity, MonoGame, and more!

I will be presenting 2 sessions at Visual Studio Live! in Redmond this August 18-22. The conference is a full 4 day event and there’s still time to register and save $500 if you register before 6/11/14! For this event, I’ll be presenting:

Visual Studio 2013 has introduced a new Performance and Diagnostics hub which encompasses a variety of new and old tools to profile your Windows Store applications. In this session, we will take a detailed look at all of the tools that the Performance and Diagnostics Hub has to offer with both XAML and HTML/JavaScript Windows Store apps.

A variety of new features were added to the .NET 4.5 Framework, including support for easily writing asynchronous code. This session will introduce the concepts of asynchronous programming, .NET Tasks, how to ensure your UI remains responsive, and how to do all of this properly in your own applications using the new "async" and "await" keywords. If you're looking for ways to provide a better, smoother experience for your users, don't miss this session!

I have been exploring the Xamarin tools recently and decided to try my hand at connecting some Bluetooth hardware to Android for a project that will be released soon. I have learned quite a bit about Bluetooth on Android and decided to write up a short description on how to connect to a Bluetooth serial device via RFCOMM/SPP.

First, grab an instance of the default BluetoothAdapter on the Android device and determine if it is enabled:

Next, get an instance of the BluetoothDevice representing the physical device you’re connecting to. You can get a list of currently paired devices using the adapter’s BondedDevices collection. I use some simple LINQ to find the device I’m looking for:

Now that the device is connected, communication occurs via the InputStream and OutputStream properties which live on the BluetoothSocket object These properties are standard .NET Stream objects and can be used exactly as you’d expect: